PARIS .-IBM (NYSE: IBM) and BNP Paribas, the largest French company and the fifth largest in the banking industry worldwide, today announced a 318 million euro (exclusive of VAT), six-year agreement for their existing joint venture, BP2I, to support and manage the overall information technology (IT) infrastructure operations of BNP Paribas’ subsidiary office, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) in Italy.

By extending BP2I to Italy, BP2I will be able to provide flexible solutions across both its French and Italian operations. BP2I will provide significant cost savings to the BNP Paribas Group by transforming BNL’s IT infrastructure and aligning it with BNP Paribas’ current infrastructure and standard processes. The agreement will also enable BNP Paribas Group to strengthen BNL’s capabilities to better manage the globalization requirements of the retail banking business.

In signing this agreement, BNP Paribas is expanding its existing partnership with IBM, which began in 2004 when IBM proposed a new IT infrastructure management for BNP Paribas Group’s Retail and Insurance branches across France, and in doing so, created BNP Paribas Partners for Innovation (BP2I), the IT services company equally owned by BNP Paribas SA and IBM.

IBM is closely working with BNP Paribas Group, supporting its future business initiatives and global ambitions, while consolidating some of BNP’s IT operations, securing resilience capabilities, improving productivity and helping it to deliver high quality services to its clients. Through this agreement, IBM will continue leveraging its global leadership, technology innovation and banking solutions knowledge, for the BNP Paribas Group.

“We are pleased about the extension of our partnership with IBM and of the scope of operations of our 50/50 joint venture, BP2I. As we progressively build a multi-domestic retail bank across Europe, it will be essential to create European competence centers in each country, along with aligned processes to leverage the IT operations, all of which will be made possible through BP2I,” says Hervé Gouëzel, Président du Conseil de Stratégie et de Surveillance de BP2I.

“BNP Paribas is known for being at the forefront of the international banking industry,” says Eric Auvray, IBM General Manager for Global Technology Services, Southwest Europe. “Along with being able to take advantage of IBM’s knowledge and experience in the banking and consumer industry, this agreement will provide a flexible solution that will enable BNP Paribas and its subsidiary office Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, to adjust to the fast-changing demands of a competitive market. This new agreement underscores the strong relationship between both companies and our commitment to deliver the highest level of service excellence to BNP Paribas.”